June 1 show

Lost cemeteries

An angel looks over a child’s grave where the headstone has sunk into the ground in Cave Springs Cemetery in Jennings County, Indiana. The angel’s wings and an arm lie at her feet. The “new” part of this cemetery is well taken care of, but the older part of the cemetery has many broken and displaced headstones and statues. Lost cemeteries have been in the news since Indianapolis police reported the discovery of a human jawbone in Garfield Park on the city's south side. Could the historic park, the oldest public park in Indy, be the site of a lost cemetery?

To explore lost or "nearly lost" cemeteries across the state - and issues associated with the forgotten or neglected burial grounds - Nelson will be joined in studio by Jeannie Regan-Dinius, cemetery and burial ground registry coordinator for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and pioneer cemetery advocate Theresa Berghoff, an Elwood native who now lives in Indianapolis.

They will share details about lost graveyards everywhere from Berne in Adams County and the Madison County community of Leisure, to a site near Kessler Boulevard and Keystone Avenue on the north side of Indy, and Rome in southwestern Indiana.

Jeannie Regan-Dinius. Nelson and his guests also will explore Greenlawn Cemetery, which was founded in 1832 near White River and Kentucky Avenue in Indy. More than 1,600 pioneers had been buried in Greenlawn when, because the graveyard was prone to flooding, city leaders initiated a mass reburial about 155 years ago with the creation of Crown Hill Cemetery, the country's third-largest private cemetery. The site for Crown Hill was chosen in part because it was believed to be the highest ground at the time in Indianapolis and thus not prone to flooding.

In 2008, our guest Jeannie Regan-Dinius helped oversee the move of 33 tombstone and remains of Hoosier pioneers from a mid-1800s cemetery in the Castleton area of Indy to Crown Hill. Shortly after that reburial - which was initiated to allow for the widening of I-69 near its interchange with I-465 - Jeannie joined Nelson for a Hoosier History Live! show during our first year on the air.

This 1866 Sullivan Map of downtown Indianapolis shows the old city burying grounds (later known as Greenlawn Cemetery) northwest of Kentucky Avenue on the east side of the White River. The cemetery was closed to new burials in 1890, as the area was prone to flooding. Image courtesy Jeannie Regan-Dinius. Now, they also will be joined by Theresa Berghoff, a cemetery restorer whose ancestors include Revolutionary and Civil War veterans buried in Wayne County. Theresa, who has helped restore tombstones, reports there are lost or "nearly lost" cemeteries in Richmond, and in the Augusta community in Pike Township on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Augusta Cemetery is the burial site of several Civil War veterans.

In Richmond, Maple Grove Cemetery, which apparently had been the site of more than 500 graves, was closed during the late 1800s. The cemetery's land then became part of Glen Miller Park. Many of Richmond's first settlers were buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.

According to Theresa's research, the first burial ground for white settlers in what became Indianapolis was known as the Plague Cemetery. Established about 1820, the cemetery was the burial site for victims of a malaria epidemic that swept the newly developing state capital, which was partially built on swampland and marshes. A current view of the Augusta Cemetery in Pike Township in Indianapolis shows vandalism and knocked-over tombstones. The cemetery is on West 76th Street, a block east of Michigan Road. Photo by Theresa Berghoff. The site of the early cemetery was later marked with a large stone next to the intersections of Barnhill and Michigan streets near the IU Medical Center on the IUPUI campus.

According to Jeannie's research, the lost graveyard in Berne was a Mennonite cemetery. She has copies of notices published in local newspapers in 1908 urging relatives to arrange for reburials of their ancestors to allow for road improvements.

During our show, Nelson plans to have Jeannie share insights about the protocol that farmers and other property owners should follow if they discover human bones. Nelson and his guests also will explore vandalism of cemeteries, as well as the various reasons some graveyards have become lost or forgotten.

Some "learn more" websites:

Roadtrip: Summer nights on the canal

Summertime means concerts on the canal at the Indiana History Center in downtown Indy. Amy Lamb of the Indiana Historical Society tells us that there are plenty of relaxing summer evenings ahead downtown on the Central Canal with the time-honored favorite, Concerts on the Canal, plus the second year of Museum Nights on the Canal.

On Thursday evenings this summer through Aug. 8, the IHS will host some of the area's best performers. Concerts take place from 6 to 8 p.m., with the exception of the annual Independence Day Bash on July 4 (5 p.m. start), and free seating is available on the grassy slope across the canal.

For June and July concert dates, IHS's Museum Nights on the Canal will offer free Indiana Experience admission, as well as hands-on activities and extra entertainment, from 4 to 8 p.m. The Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center, home of the IHS, is located at 450 W. Ohio St. in downtown Indianapolis, along the picturesque, historic Central Canal.

History Mystery

A stone carving of a child in the “mystery” cemetery near Bedford. A cemetery in southern Indiana has been called a "tombstone tourist's delight" and an "outdoor sculpture park." The cemetery, which dates to the 1880s and is located near Bedford in Lawrence County, features dozens of personalized monuments that were created for the graves of local residents.

Because the area is known as the "Limestone Capital of the World," generations of highly skilled stone cutters were available to carve sculptures memorializing the deceased. For example, the cemetery, which is on scenic, rolling terrain, includes sculptures of a golfer, a World War I doughboy and the tools of a limestone cutter on various burial sites.

Question: Name the historic cemetery near Bedford.

To win the prize, you must call in with the correct answer during the live show and be willing to be placed on the air. Please do not call if you have won a prize from any WICR show during the last two months. The call-in number is (317) 788-3314, and please do not call until you hear Nelson pose the question on the air.

The prize is a pair of tickets to the Indiana State Museum and four admissions to the Indiana Experience at the Indiana History Center. These prizes are courtesy of Visit Indy.

Your Hoosier History Live! team,

Nelson Price, host and creative director
Molly Head, producer, (317) 927-9101
Richard Sullivan, webmaster and tech director

Pam Fraizer, graphic designer
Garry Chilluffo, creative consultant
Michele Goodrich, Jed Duvall, grant consultants
Joan Hostetler, photo historian
Dana Waddell, volunteer-at-large

www.hoosierhistorylive.org

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Acknowledgments to Print Resources, Monomedia, Indiana Humanities, Visit Indy, WICR-FM, Fraizer Designs, Heritage Photo & Research Services, Derrick Lowhorn and many other individuals and organizations. We are an independently produced program and are self-supporting through organizational sponsorships, grants and through individual tax-deductible contributions through Indiana Humanities. We do not receive any government funding. Visit our website to learn how you can support us financially.

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Thanks to new or renewal donors

Hoosier History Live! wishes to thank David Meek, E.F. Wilde, Theresa and Dave Berghoff, Margaret Smith, and Certain Proud Parents for their new or renewal contributions. We regularly get callers in to the show who tell us how much they enjoy Hoosier History Live! In today's media landscape, it often is strangely refreshing to get Nelson Price's version of the world. We only continue to be on the air, and in your "in box" as a weekly enewsletter, because of organizational sponsorship and support by individuals.

For more information, visit "Support us" on our website, where you can also "click to donate." It's the best 30 seconds you'll spend! We can't do it without you.

June 8 show

Former Indy Mayor Bill Hudnut

He served as mayor of Indiana's capital city longer than anyone else in history.

For 16 eventful years - a span of four terms that included unforgettable chapters, many of which have been the focus of previous Hoosier History Live! shows (such as the notorious Blizzard of '78 and the massive Pan American Games of 1987) - William Hudnut III led Indianapolis and attained national prominence. The domed stadium initially known as the Hoosier Dome opened in downtown Indianapolis in 1984. Then-Mayor Hudnut championed its construction even before the city had an NFL team. The Colts arrived in the city in 1986. Although he primarily has lived in the Washington D.C. area since leaving the top Indy office in 1992, former Mayor Hudnut will make a return visit and join Nelson in studio to explore what has become known as "the Hudnut era."

He didn’t start out as a Hoosier. Born in Cincinnati in 1932, Bill Hudnut grew up in New Lebanon, N.Y., graduated from Princeton University and, like his father and grandfather, became a Presbyterian minister. He moved to Indy in 1963 to serve as pastor of Second Presbyterian Church, one of the city's most prestigious congregations.

By the time he left Indy, the city's skyline had been transformed - by, among other structures, the domed stadium initially known as the Hoosier Dome when it opened in 1984. Mayor Hudnut, a Republican, championed the sports facility's construction even though the city did not yet have a National Football League team to play in it.

The history of what later was named the RCA Dome was the focus of our third Hoosier History Live! show after our debut in early 2008, shortly before the stadium's demolition. The Hudnut Years book cover. That program followed a show about the 30th anniversary of the Blizzard of '78, the worst in city history, during which the lanky, 6-foot-4 mayor rode on snowplows and urged residents to persevere.

An unabashed cheerleader known for his willingness to do just about anything to rally his adopted hometown - including donning a leprechaun outfit on St. Patrick's Day - Bill Hudnut particularly advocated the resurgence of downtown and Indy's unofficial designation as the country's amateur sports capital. During his terms as mayor (1976-92), he also served as president of the National League of Cities.

Nelson plans to ask the former mayor to identify his greatest accomplishments as well as his biggest disappointments. A recent article in the Indianapolis Star about the 25th anniversary of the concert venue initially known as Deer Creek Music Center (now Klipsch Music Center) indicated then-Mayor Hudnut unsuccessfully pushed for it to be built in what became White River State Park rather than its eventual site in Hamilton County.

"What would you do if you were called to lead a city known as Naptown, India-No-Place or Brickyard in a Cornfield?" Bill Hudnut asks in his book The Hudnut Years (IU Press, 1995). His other books include Minister Mayor (Westminister Press, 1987).

He doesn't have to be the only one posing questions. Listeners are invited to call in at (317) 788-3314 to ask questions or share insights with the man whose career was so intertwined with Indy history during the last part of the 20th century.